The present invention relates generally to a cooler, and more particularly to a heat pipe cooling for dissipating heat generated from an electronic device.
The operation of all electronic devices generates heat either due to conversion efficiency or friction. In particular, the modern technology has made possible more and more miniaturized electronic products, such as integrated circuits and personal electronic devices, the heat generated therefrom thus become more and more concentrated. For example, as a result of the continuous performance enhancement of personal computers, the heat generated from a personal computer is no longer restricted to the central processing unit. Other chipsets, such as chip modules, image processing units, dynamic memories and hard disks, also contribute significantly to the overall generated heat. Therefore, an additional cooling device is needed for ensuring that the personal computer is operated within the working temperature range, thereby preventing the personal computer from malfunctioning.
Heat pipes are the mostly employed cooling device in a miniaturized electronic product. The cooling device is made of materials of high heat conductivity. The cooperation between the working fluid and the capillary structured disposed in the heat pipe renders the heat pipe to have high heat conductivity and a reduction of the weight thereof. Therefore, such a cooling device does not have the problems of noise, heavy weight, too costly and structural complexity. In addition, such a cooling device can massively transfer heat without consuming electricity. For the reasons set forth above, the heat pipe cooling device has become the standard cooling device. However, conventional heat pipe cooling device is adhered to a heat generating electronic element via a heat conductor. The heat conductor transfers the heat to the heat pipe. Then, the working fluid in the heat pipe is vaporized due to the absorbed heat, thereby transferring the heat to the cooling body. Next, the vaporized working fluid is condensed and returns to the original position along the capillary structure. Since a heat conductor is required to absorb and transfer heat to the heat pipe, the overall heat transfer process is too long. Therefore, the heat transfer speed is rather limited.
One conventional heat pipe cooling device includes a cooling body, a heat pipe and a heat conductor. The cooling body includes a plurality of cooling fins stacked with each other, each cooling fin having a through hole formed thereon. The heat pipe includes a heat reception end and a cooling end. The cooling end of the heat pipe penetrates through the through holes of the cooling fins. A plurality of concave grooves is formed on the heat conductor, which is contained in the heat reception end of the heat pipe. Before the heat reception end of the heat pipe is disposed in front of the concave groove, a metallic material of low melting point is coated on the concave groove. The heat reception end of the heat pipe is then disposed in the concave groove. Later, the combination is sent to an hot oven for securely fastening the heat pipe to the heat conductor, thereby forming a heat pipe cooling device. The surface of the heat pipe is blacken due to the heating process in the oven. Therefore, an oxidation reduction process is required for recovering the heat pipe to its original color.
The heat pipe of the heat pipe cooling device described above is disposed in the heat conductor, so as to shorten the heat transfer path and increase the heat transfer rate. However, a metallic material of low melting point is required to be coated on the concave groove of the heat conductor. In addition, a hot oven is used to securely fasten the heat pipe with the heat conductor. These processes will increase the fabrication and the material cost for coating the metallic material and for heating in the oven. Moreover, the heating process in the oven will blacken the surface of the heat pipe. An additional oxidation reduction process is thus required, which will largely increase the manufacturing cost and lower the production efficiency.